What Your Favorite Kids Book Then Says About You Now

Everyone had a favorite book as a kid – you know, that tattered old thing you carried from room to room and made you parents read out loud to you over and over again, the one that you quoted until you were, um, a little too old to be doing so. We know our lives were shaped in part by the literature we loved as children, so inspired by this recent list of books every child should read, we got to thinking about what your favorite kids book back then might say about you now that you’re all grown up. Click through for our predictions, and do your best to take it with the grain of salt we intend – don’t worry, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lovers, we’re not really accusing you of advocating slavery. Be sure to add to the fun and make up your own in the comments!

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

There are eighteen different kinds of tea in your kitchen, and plenty of herbs.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

You may be Employee of the Month at work, but you’re a Hobbes scholar at heart.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Video games are still a huge part of your life. What? They could be important!

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Family may be the most important thing to you, but that wouldn’t stop you from stealing your sister’s ex boyfriend.

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill

You are – or wish you were – an amateur guerrilla graffiti artist. Damn the man, man!

Tintin in Tibet by Hergé

You’re a compulsive traveller and manage to make friends no matter where you go. Sometimes that leads to getting locked in prison or drugged, but you can roll with the punches.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Anytime any of your friends need a tool – or any kind of food for that matter – they know where to come. You’ve got everything.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

The residual guilt may be nearly unbearable, but at least you’ll be a good parent.

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Quiet and complex, you see things others do not.

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Your friends may be totally crazy, but you’re together enough that you can go out partying with them every night and still hold down a full-time job.

Goosebumps by R.L. Stine

You’re the guy who finds a way to ruin every party.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Even though you complain all the time that you’re everybody’s go-to guy, secretly it’s like crack to you.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

You’re probably a genius by now. Or a politician. Definitely not both.

Redwall by Brian Jacques

You’re a staunch vegetarian and have a vast wine cellar. You also have really weird prejudices against random animals.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Your work is going up at the MoMa next week. It’s no big deal.

Matlida by Roald Dahl

You can’t stop talking about how your multi-media novel is going to be really awesome. It probably is.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

No matter what, you’re always the only one at the office at 9am on the dot. Then you annoy everyone all day with all your clever puns.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Your wanderlust is pretty serious this time of year.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Every day, you make a point of wearing at least one ridiculously colorful piece of clothing.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

You’re a creative gastronomist with a flexible policy on slave labor.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Your dermatologist has made a million dollars off of you.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

You may or may not be that lady who talks to her plants.

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

Sure, your job sucks now, but you’re not about to sweat it. As soon as you pay your dues, you’re going to shoot right to the top of the company.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Every house you live in must be outfitted with a walk in closet. Just in case.

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[...] looks at what your favorite book then says about you now. AKPC_IDS += "6089,"; categories: Parenting, links [...]

What about Pippi Longstocking? I read those books tons of times when I was a kid. Where The Wild Things Are was a favorite of mine too. Alice in Wonderland and Anne of Green Gables were good too. I pretty much read whatever I got my hands on

The Wizard of Oz You communicate better with animals than people, and you still think that grown-ups are odd creatures. The fact that you are one just proves it. Winnie-the-Pooh You have very diverse friends and have fun doing nothing. The Wind in the Willows You really, really, really like to drive.

Hilarious - thanks for the laugh.

Love it! I was almost afraid to look at my own favorite kid's books, but it was actually really interesting once I did! I sense a trend in my reading habits from before I was even reading.

What about A Wrinkle in Time?

The Black Stallion was my favorite...the whole series of 21 books! And Aesop's fables...The Wizard of Oz....

Lord of the Rings seems conspicuously absent

As a child, I read E.B. White's Charlotte's Web ad nauseum! Also, Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series.

I enjoy that Robyn's correction is about underappreciation. Too perfect.

i have to say To Think I Saw It On Mulberry ST because imagination can take you anywhere and help yod do anything

don't know how you define "kid". but my favorite book when i was 12 or so was orwell's 1984.

Podkayne of Mars. It probably explains my sarcastic sense of humor and real need to be competent in every area I can. As a librarian, I love introducing kids to Robert Heinlein juveniles. Even their parents have never heard of him.

Harriet the Spy...now I stalk people on Facebook LOL just kidding!

My favorite was Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." I don't even want to know what that says about me!

robyn, dont u get it? they were talking about the met. they mention the moma, because it pales in comparison to the met, according to the book. duh.

I loved Harriet the Spy! You should see my collection of journals FILLED with observations! :)

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry. All the Black Stallion books by Walter Farley. Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey--Miss Hickory is so resourceful!

I didn't read a lot, but Boxcar Children gets my vote. In fact, I just read it a few years ago and I'm 63.

Can't believe Old Man and the Sea was not on the list. I'd say if that was someone's favorite as a kid, it means you're now someone facing the raw futility of life but who still likes to occasionally tote around a big hooker just to show the young punks he's still got the touch.

The Boxcar Children series. Overcoming adversity through a loving family group (no adults). And I don't think I want to meet the person who loved Animal Farm as a child!

I think it would have been funnier if this had been about what your favorite children's book REALLY says about you.

I'm gonna have to be unique and say Struwwelpeter. It's a book of cautionary tales for naughty little German kids my offbeat European mother use to read me and my sister. She (my sister) firmly believed that if she sucked her thumb the tailor would come with his giant scissors and cut it off. I don't know how much influence it holds at present, but it definitely scared me into being a good kid.

Uh, hello? The Babysitters Club?! Lol! I loved and probably read every single one. What it says about me? Not sure exactly but thinking about it now, it seems similiar with how I felt when watching every episode of SATC. The belonging/friendship/intimicy portrayed in both seemed to resonate with me...as an Army brat coming up, it was never something I experienced since I was always the "new kid". Hmm...

No, sorry none of these, Famous Five Books (all 2000 of them!) and Milly, Molly, Mandy - loved the illustrations. I think your favourite books say more about your age than anything!

Where the Red Fern Grows - coming home to the pups is the best part of your day and Bridge to Terabithia - while you may not get to literally sneak off to the woods every afternoon, you find some time each day to take a figurative swing on a tree branch across the river to your own kingdom.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz... Snoozefest. Maybe I found this super-boring because I read Rip Van Winkle too many times as a kid. Get it? That story is about sleeping so I'm always bored by stuff.

Is Mrs. Coverlet's Magicians on the top of anyone else's list? I hope so ...

James and the Giant Peach...what does that say? I want to be more powerful than people think & make friends doing to. Don't forget killing my enemies!

Going back a bit further (ca. 1900), what about "The Treasure Seekers" by E. Nesbit? and her other books about those noble albeit mischievous Bastable children? If I'd read them at age 10, surely I would want to marry Oswald Bastable when we both grew up. I was led to the Bastables because of C.S. Lewis' casual mention of them on the first page of The Magician's Nephew -- it sounded as if everyone should know who the Bastables were! and indeed they should. So since I didn't read about the Bastables until I was 57, it was perhaps too late (alas!) for them to have a formative influence. I did read Sherlock Holmes, though, and no doubt as a direct result I love nothing better than a cozy, cluttered, book-lined Victorian parlor with tea being served practically non-stop, and the ever-present possibility of a mysterious visitor at any moment.

Where is Winnie The Pooh ??????

A Wrinkle in Time NEEDS to be here! And Beezus and Ramona! (And anything else in the prime of Beverly Cleary!) And Greek mythology! And Tolkien! These books are why I am a fairly normal person who wants to go to Greece someday and enjoys not bouncing my ball in time with everyone else while enjoying nature along with BIG battles with orcs!

No Treasure Island? Anyway, The Minnow Leads To Treasure is the best boy's book ever.

"The Secret Garden." I still like to dig in the dirt.

Let's see Alice in Wonderland (Tea: check, Herbs: check), Anne of Green Gables series (I love those rambly old houses); The Secret Garden (does threatening plants to live count as talking? but love going to a botanical garden and finding lonely bench), Narnia (I loved the wardrobes my grandparents had as a child); Where the Wild Things Are (that so explains college). I also loved Madeleine L'Engle's books, which says that I have a belief in the infinite possibilities of life and the universe.

My favorite was The Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle (series' count yes?)

Heckedy Peg: I'm not sure what the book says about me... but it is the best.

Awesome article! At various times - not only as a child - I have loved Where The Wild Things Are, Little Women, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Chronicles of Narnia. The comments aren't spot on about me, but they definitely made me laugh. P.S. I don't have a walk-in closet, but obviously those are awesome. Still, as a child, I was one of the kids who hid out in the clothes racks at department stores when I was bored. Best.pasttime.ever.

Fiz Rawlings ~ You so beautifully capture the essence of Anne of Green Gables ~ All of life's lessons ~ hard ones, soft ones, poignant ones, silly ones.....all of them were played out by Anne in such a way as to guide me through my own angst of growing up. Just thinking about Anne still today just makes me happy! This may sound exaggerated, but I think I am a better person today for having had Anne as a peer role model. I have read and loved most of the aforementioned books listed here, but for me, there's "all of those greats" and "the greatest of all." In fact, I'm going to dust it off and read it all over again!

Fun list! Here are a few more that are essential: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, Wind in the Willows, Rabbit Hill, The Five Children and It, The Hundred Dresses, Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, Mama's Bank Account, The Greene Knowe series, Narnia, His Dark Materials -- anything by Philip Pullman, A Wrinkle in Time, Stargirl...

My favorite, is alas, not on the list either: "The Little Prince".

Or messing about in boats!

What about "a Wrinkle in Time", "Call of the Wild", "The Black Stallion" and so many more? I was a consummate bookworm as a kid and the only one that I truly didn't enjoy was "the Chrisalids" which didn't sit well with me

No Wind in the Willows? Who doesn't love a wild ride?

My favorite was "Island of the Blue Dolphins" and I really like to be alone...

Alice in Wonderland-Too true. I am now in the import/export business and sell tea and gourmet artisanal sugars (for tea and coffee). I also have a certificate from the Specialty Tea Institute (level I and II) and member of The Tea Association of America. I grow herbs on my windowsill and love tea time. I have way more than 18 types of tea in my kitchen. Too funny.

Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery was my childhood favorite. I can tell you what it says about me: i have a great imagination and I love to share stories. yep, I'm a librarian!

I read The BFG by Dahl many, many times. Maybe I don't want to know what that means.

My favorite book as a child was The Witches by Roald Dahl. I dont know if I want to know what that means. Fun article!

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